Youth Expertise and Science Diplomacy: Framing Regional Knowledge Spillovers for Policy Innovation in EU-MENA relations

This paper explores how youth expertise and science diplomacy intersect within regional cooperation frameworks to produce knowledge spillovers that can lead to policy influence, focusing primarily on the Euro-Mediterranean context but widening it to other regions’ examples. Building on transnationalist and neo-functionalist international relations theories, the study argues that New Regionalism – a set of formal or informal mid-level ‘triangular’ relations among states but also non-state actors (Söderbaum and Shaw, 2003) – may offer a strategic lens to understand how youth-led knowledge production challenges traditional expertise and power hierarchies, laying the foundations for influencing the policy-making through non-governmental channels based on various practices of exchange (explicit, tacit, practical, theoretical). Drawing on empirical data from 86 surveys and 4 focus groups with youth actors in the Euro-Mediterranean region, the research examines how multi-actor coalitions based on knowledge and intercultural exchange among youth organizations, NGOs, academic institutions, and civil society create synergies that amplify youth impact in policy processes. It investigates the mechanisms through which advocacy and joint projects facilitate the flow of expertise across borders and sectors – known as knowledge spillovers – and how these contribute to innovative governance practices. The paper addresses the following research questions: 1) How does youth expertise, mediated through advocacy and multi-actor coalitions, generate knowledge spillovers within the Euro-Mediterranean regional framework? 2) In what ways do these knowledge spillovers influence policy innovation and challenge traditional hierarchies of expertise? Two key sub questions concern the understanding of the lessons that can be drawn from other regional organizations such as ASEAN and the African Union regarding youth’s role in fostering knowledge-based policy innovation, and how do multi-level cooperation and subsidiarity principles empower youth-led organizations to engage effectively in policy-making. Findings from the Mediterranean case highlight the potential of youth-centred, knowledge and intercultural exchanges to bridge formal diplomatic gaps, foster mutual understanding, and reshape regional governance by enabling youth to participate meaningfully in decision-making. This research contributes to the fields of science diplomacy and international relations by framing New Regionalism as a middle-ground theory between neo-functionalism and transnationalism frameworks, and examining the intricate youth and knowledge-based interactions as new drivers of policy influence across diverse regional contexts.